JP5815873B2 - Method and apparatus for device profiles in a wireless network - Google Patents

Description

  Examples are in the field of wireless communications. More specifically, examples are in the field of communication protocols between wireless transmitters and receivers.

FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of a wireless network having a plurality of communication devices including a plurality of fixed or mobile communication devices. FIG. 1A shows an example of a management frame for establishing communication between wireless communication devices. FIG. 1B shows an example of a device profile index element of the frame body of the management frame of FIG. 1A. FIG. 1C shows an example of a device profile identifier field. FIG. 1D shows an example of a device category and device type table for establishing communication between wireless communication devices. FIG. 1E shows an example of a device profile data structure stored in the access point memory to determine the traffic characteristics of the communication device based on the device profile identifier field. FIG. 2 shows an embodiment of an apparatus for generating, transmitting, receiving and interpreting a device profile index element of a frame. FIG. 3 shows an example of a flowchart for generating a frame having a device profile index element. 4A-B show an example of a flow chart for sending, receiving and interpreting communications with the device profile index element shown in FIG.

  In the following, the novel embodiments shown in the attached drawings will be described in detail. However, the degree of detail provided is not intended to limit the anticipated variations of the disclosed embodiments, and the claims and detailed description may be based on the teachings of the present invention as defined by the appended claims. Cover all improvements, equalities and alternatives within the spirit and scope. The following detailed description is intended to enable those skilled in the art to understand such embodiments.

  Embodiments provide a device profile mechanism for a wireless communication device. Many embodiments have a Medium Access Control (MAC) sublayer logic to construct a frame having a device profile index element of the first communication device. In embodiments, the MAC sublayer logic may implement a device profile index element in the frame body of the association frame and the reassociation frame. The embodiment may realize access by the second communication device to the device profile of the first communication device without communication of the entire device profile from the first communication device. In some embodiments, the second communication device may access a storage medium integrated with or accessible to the second communication device to determine the device profile. Embodiments have a data structure that is accessible based on an index that indicates a device category and device type and has at least one device profile included in a device profile index element. Some embodiments may store the device profile index element by other methods that implement the transmission of the device profile index element by memory, logic or frame. Some embodiments may receive and detect communications with device profile index elements. Further embodiments may generate and transmit communications with device profile index elements.

  Some embodiments have an Internet of Things (IoT) device. IoT is called Thing-to-Thing connection via the Internet. IoT devices take advantage of WiFi (Wireless Fidelity) network ubiquity that allows new applications that often require significantly lower power consumption, among other unique characteristics. WiFi is generally IEEE (the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers) 802.11-2007, IEEE Standard for Information technology-Telecommunications and information exchange between systems-Local and metropolitan area networks-Specific requirements-Part 11: Wireless LAN Medium Access Control (MAC) and Physical Layer (PHY) Specifications (http: // standards. Reference is made to devices that implement (ieee.org/getieee802/download/802.11-2007.pdf) and other related wireless standards.

  In addition to conventional mobile devices (laptops, smartphones, tablets, etc.), IoT devices may include sensors, meters, controls, instruments, monitors, appliances, and the like. These devices require a deeply embedded wireless connection, may not have any visual control or display functionality, and may require several years of battery life.

  Some embodiments utilize an IEEE 802.11v system. An IEEE 802.11v system may have a power saving feature set supported by the network infrastructure that allows client devices to sleep for longer periods while performing essential functions. However, these functions are general-purpose personal devices and are primarily designed for mobile devices with a comprehensive user interface. Unlike personal devices, IoT devices are designed to perform specific functions and have limited resources (such as memory). Thus, embodiments implement a device profile mechanism that implements the power saving function defined for IEEE 802.11v devices of IoT devices with limited memory and limited user interface capabilities.

  Some embodiments include IEEE 802.11v power saving devices such as Wi-Fi embedding devices that use BSS Max Idle Period, Traffic Filter Service, Flexible Multicast Service and Direct multi-service service, including IEEE 802.11v power saving devices, etc. A device profile mechanism for simplifying configuration and communication is realized. Further embodiments implement a device profile mechanism for traffic classification (TCLAS) or traffic specification (TSPEC) settings associated with any QoS (Quality of Service). According to some embodiments, the new device profile allows small battery-powered wireless devices (such as sensors) to use Wi-Fi to connect to the Internet with longer or extended coverage. It may be a building block of Ultra Low Power technology.

  Further embodiments may provide indoor and / or outdoor “smart” grid and sensor services and the like. For example, some embodiments measure sensors for the use of electricity, water, gas and / or other utilities for homes within a particular area and wirelessly transmit the use of these services to the meter substation. May be provided. Further examples utilize home health care, clinic or hospital sensors to monitor patient health related events and vital signs such as drop detection, vial monitoring, weight monitoring, sleep apnea, blood glucose levels, heart rate, etc. May be. Embodiments designed for such services generally require much lower data rates and much lower (ultra-low) power consumption than devices provided in IEEE 802.11n / ac systems.

  The logic, modules, devices, and interfaces disclosed herein perform functions implemented by hardware and / or code. The hardware and / or code may comprise software, firmware, microcode, a processor, a state machine, a chipset, or a combination thereof designed to implement the function.

  Embodiments may implement wireless communication. In some embodiments, in order to realize such an interaction between devices, Bluetooth (registered trademark), WLAN (Wireless Personal Area Network), WMAN (Wireless Metropolitan Area Network), WPAN (Wireless Person, Wireless Network, Wireless Network). You may have low power wireless communications such as networks, IEEE 802.11-2007, communications in networks, messaging systems and smart devices. Further, some wireless embodiments may incorporate a single antenna, while other embodiments may utilize multiple antennas. For example, MIMO (Multiple-Input and Multiple-Output) uses a radio channel that carries signals via a plurality of antennas in both a transmitter and a receiver in order to improve communication performance.

  Although some of the specific embodiments described below refer to embodiments with specific configurations, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the embodiments of the present disclosure may be effectively implemented with other configurations having similar problems. Good.

  With reference to FIG. 1, an embodiment of a wireless communication system 1000 is shown. The wireless communication system 1000 includes a communication device 1010 that may be wired and wirelessly connected to a network 1005. The communication device 1010 can wirelessly communicate with a plurality of communication devices 1030, 1050, and 1055 via the network 1005. The communication device 1010 may be configured from an access point. The communication device 1030 may be configured from a low power communication device such as a sensor, a home appliance, or a personal mobile device. The communication devices 1050 and 1055 include sensors, stations, access points, hubs, switches, routers, computers, laptops, netbooks, mobile phones, smartphones, PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants) or other wireless compatible devices. May be. Accordingly, the communication device may be mobile or stationary. For example, the communication device 1010 may comprise a water consumption measurement substation in the vicinity of the home. Each household in the vicinity may have a sensor such as a communication device 1030, and the communication device 1030 may be integrated or connected to a water meter usage meter. First, the communication device 1030 receives a beacon from the communication device 1010, and then transmits a communication having an association frame having a device profile index element 1035 to notify the communication device 1010 of the device profile of the communication device 1030. Thereafter, periodically, the communication device 1030 initiates communication with the measurement substation to transmit data relating to water usage. Further, the measurement station or other communication device may periodically start communication with the communication device 1030 according to the traffic parameters of the device profile of the communication device 1030, for example, to update the firmware of the communication device 1030. In other embodiments, the communication device 1030 may be responsive only to communication and not have logic to initiate communication.

  In further embodiments, the communication device 1010 may perform data offload processing. For example, a communication device that is a low power sensor may be used to reduce power consumption used to wait for access to a measurement station, etc. and / or increase bandwidth availability, for example, Wi-Fi, etc. May have a data offload scheme for communicating via a communication device, a cellular network, or the like. A communication device that receives data from a sensor such as a measurement station may have a data offload scheme for communicating via Wi-Fi, other communication devices, a cellular network, etc. to reduce congestion of the network 1005. Good.

  Network 1005 may represent an interconnection of multiple networks. For example, the network 1005 may be connected to a wide area network such as the Internet or an intranet, and may be interconnected with local devices that are wired or wirelessly interconnected via one or more hubs, routers, or switches. In this embodiment, the network 1005 is connected for communication with the communication devices 1010, 1030, 1050, and 1055.

  Communication apparatuses 1010 and 1030 have memories 1011 and 1031 and MAC sublayer logics 1018 and 1038, respectively. The memories 1011 and 1031 may include storage media such as a DRAM (Dynamic Random Access Memory), a ROM (Read Only Memory), a flash memory, a hard disk drive, and a solid state drive. The memory 1011 may have a device profile data structure 1012 that includes one or more device profiles of a device such as the device 1032. Device profile data structure 1012 may include an indexing structure for extracting or retrieving device profiles based on device profile index elements, such as device profile index element 1032. The memory 1031 includes a device profile index element 1032, and in some embodiments may include custom parameters for the device profile of the communication device 1030.

  The MAC sublayer logic 1018 and 1038 may include logic for realizing the function of the MAC sublayer of the data link layer of the communication apparatuses 1010 and 1030. The MAC sublayer logics 1018 and 1038 generate a frame, transfer the frame to the physical layer (PHY), and generate a physical layer protocol data unit (PPDU). More specifically, the frame builders 1013 and 1033 generate frames, and the PHY logic data unit builder generates PPDUs for transmission via physical layer devices such as transceivers (RX / TX) 1030 and 1040. The frame may be encapsulated by a preamble. Frames 1014 and 1034, also referred to as MAC layer protocol data units (MPDUs), may include management, control, and data frames. In many embodiments, frame builder 1013, 1033 generates frames 1014, 1034 having device profile index elements 1015, 1035. For example, the frame builder 1033 generates a management frame 1034 such as an association request frame for requesting association with an access point such as the communication device 1010 or a reassociation request frame for requesting reassociation with the communication device 1010. May be. The association request frame has a device profile index element 1035 that allows the communication device 1010 to allocate resources to the transceiver 1040 and synchronize. The association request frame includes information about the transceiver 1040 such as the supported data rate and service set identification information (SSID) of the network that the communication device 1030 desires to associate with.

  After receiving the association request, the communication device 1010 determines whether to associate with the transceiver 1040, and if permitted, reserves a memory space and establishes an association identifier (AID) of the transceiver 1040. The communication device 1010 determines the device profile of the communication device 1030 by determining the device profile index element 1035 from the association request frame and searching for the device profile in the device profile data structure 1012. The communication device 1010 searches for a device profile in the device profile data structure 1012 by using a device profile index 1035 such as an index for the device profile data structure 1012. Thereafter, when the custom parameter is not set for the communication apparatus 1030, the default value of the device profile of the communication apparatus 1030 may be used. The communication device 1030 may present custom parameters of the device profile to the communication device 1010 using a traffic filter service (TFS) frame, a flexible multicast service frame, a directed multicast service frame, or other traffic-related frames.

  Thereafter, the communication device 1010 responds to the association request with a management frame 1014 such as an association response frame or a reassociation response frame. The communication device 1010 transmits an association response frame including an acceptance or rejection notification to the transceiver 1040. If the communication device 1010 accepts an association with the transceiver 1040, the association response frame may include information about the association such as an association identifier (AID) and a supported data rate.

  The communication devices 1010, 1030, 1050, and 1055 may each include a transceiver such as the transceivers 1020 and 1040. Each transceiver 1020, 1040 has an RF transmitter and an RF receiver. Each RF transmitter applies digital data to the RF frequency for data transmission by electromagnetic radiation. The RF receiver receives electromagnetic energy at the RF frequency and extracts digital data therefrom. FIG. 1 shows a plurality of different embodiments including, for example, a MIMO system with four spatial streams, etc., where one or more of the communication devices 1010, 1030, 1050, 1055 is a SISO (Single-Input, Single Output) system, SIMO A degenerate system comprised of a receiver and / or transmitter with a single antenna including a (Single-Input, Multiple Output) system and a MISO (Multiple-Input, Single Output) system may be shown.

  In many embodiments, the transceivers 1020, 1040 implement orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM). OFDM is a method for encoding digital data into a plurality of carrier frequencies. OFDM is a frequency division multiplexing system used as a digital multicarrier modulation method. A number of closely spaced orthogonal subcarrier signals are used to carry data. The data is divided into a plurality of parallel data streams or channels, one for each subcarrier. Each subcarrier is modulated by a low symbol rate modulation scheme that maintains a total data rate similar to conventional single carrier modulation schemes over the same bandwidth.

  An OFDM system utilizes multiple carriers or “tones” for functions including data, pilot, guard and nulling. Data tones are used to transmit information between a transmitter and a receiver over one of the channels. Pilot tones are used to maintain the channel and may provide information regarding time / frequency and channel tracking. Guard tones are inserted between symbols such as short training field (STF) and long training field (LTF) symbols during transmission to avoid intersymbol interference (ISI) that can result from multipath distortion. These guard tones also help the signal follow a spectral mask. Direct component (DC) nulling is used to simplify the design of DC conversion receivers.

  In some embodiments, the communication device 1010 optionally has a digital beamformer (DBF) as indicated by a dashed line. The DBF 1022 changes the information signal to a signal to be applied to the elements of the antenna array 1024. The antenna array 1024 is an array of individually excitable antenna elements. Signals applied to the elements of the antenna array 1024 cause the antenna array 1024 to radiate 1-4 spatial channels. Each spatial channel thus formed carries information to one or more of the communication devices 1030, 1050, 1055. Similarly, the communication device 1030 includes a transceiver 1040 for transmitting and receiving signals to and from the communication device 1010. The transceiver 1040 may have an antenna array 1044 and optionally a DBF 1042.

  FIG. 1A shows an example of a management frame 1060 for establishing communication between wireless communication devices such as communication devices 1010, 1030, 1050, 1055 of FIG. The management frame 1060 has a MAC header 1061, a subsequent frame body 1074, and a subsequent frame check sequence (FCS) 1076. The MAC header 1061 has a frame control field 1062, a duration field 1064, a destination address (DA) field 1066, a source address (SA) field 1068, a basic service set identifier (BSSID) field 1070, and a sequence control field 1072. The frame control field 1062 may be 2 octets and may specify the type and subtype of a frame, such as a management type and associated subtype frame. The duration field 1064 may be 2 octets, and may indicate a duration such as a network allocation vector (NAV). The DA field 1066 may be 6 octets, and may specify the MAC address with the destination communication device. The SA field 1068 may be 6 octets and may specify the MAC address of the source communication device. The BSSID field 1070 may be 6 octets, and may indicate a basic service set identifier. The sequence control field 1072 may be 2 octets, and may indicate a sequence number and a fragment number of the MAC service data unit (MSDU).

  Frame body 1074 may be up to 2312 octets and may have device profile index elements, such as device profile index element 1080 shown in FIG. 1B. The FCS 1076 may have a cyclic redundancy check value such as an IEEE 32-bit cyclic redundancy check value. The cyclic redundancy check value is a value used by the error detection cyclic redundancy code (CRC) to detect common types of errors on the communication channel and provides a quick and reasonable guarantee of the integrity of the received communication. provide.

  FIG. 1B shows an example of a device profile index element 1080 of the frame body 1074 of the management frame 1060 of FIG. 1A. The device profile index element 1080 may have an element identifier field 1082, a length field 1084, and a device profile identifier field 1086. The element identifier field 1082 may be one octet, and may identify the element 1080 as a device profile index element. The length field 1084 may be one octet and may specify the length of the device profile identifier field 1086. The device profile identifier field 1086 may be 2 octets, and has data for specifying a device profile of a communication apparatus such as a communication apparatus including the device profile identifier field 1086 in the frame body 1074 of the management frame 1060. May be.

  FIG. 1C shows an example of a device profile identifier field 1090 for establishing communication between wireless communication devices such as communication devices 1010, 1030, 1050, 1055 of FIG. The device profile identifier 1086 of FIG. 1B may utilize a device profile identifier such as the device profile identifier 1090 shown in FIG. 1C. The device profile identifier field 1090 has two fields, a device category field 1092 and a device type field 1094. The device category field 1092 may be one octet, and may specify a category to which a communication device belongs, such as a communication device that generates a management frame 1060 having the device category 1092. The device type field 1094 may be 1 octet and may specify the type of device in the device category 1092. For example, device category 1092 has 8 bytes of data having an index of a device profile data structure such as device profile data structure 1012 of FIG. 1, and device type 1094 is a device profile such as device profile data structure 1012 of FIG. You may have 8 bytes of data with a data structure index.

  FIG. 1D shows an example of a device category device type table 1100 for establishing communication between wireless communication devices. In particular, FIG. 1D shows a table of partial index values for the device category 1029 and device type 1094 of FIG. 1C. The index value is a partial value for indicating the value. Many embodiments may have 8 byte values and 4 byte values. In particular, the device category index column provides an index value such as a hexadecimal value indicating the device described in the adjacent description column. In some embodiments, the hexadecimal value represented in the device category index column may have an index for inclusion in the device category field 1092 of FIG. 1C. Similarly, the device type index column provides an index value such as a hexadecimal value indicating the device described in the adjacent description column. In some embodiments, the hexadecimal value represented in the device type index column has an index for inclusion in the device type field 1094 of FIG. 1C. Note that in the illustrated table 1100, the device type index includes valid device types for the device category index in the same row. Also, it should be noted that the values and descriptions in the table are for illustrative purposes, and the embodiment is not limited to the index values and descriptions in the table 1100, and may actually have completely different index numbers and descriptions. .

  For the sake of explanation, the Wi-Fi device may be classified as a category such as a personal computer, a personal mobile device, a display unit, a home appliance (CE), and a sensor device without limitation. Each category may have a specific device type. For example, the personal computer category may include specific types of personal computers such as desktops, game stations, home theater computers, workstations, and the like. The personal mobile device category may include specific types of personal mobile devices such as laptops, netbooks, smartphones, tablets and the like. The display unit category may include specific types of display units such as monitors, televisions, weather stations and the like. The home appliance category may include specific types of home appliances such as an alarm clock, a digital video recorder (DVR), and a clock. The sensor device category may also include specific types of sensor devices such as appliance monitors, security monitors, smart gas meters, smart water meters, thermostats, water heater monitors. Other embodiments may configure different tables 1100, such as independent lists of device category indexes and device type indexes.

  FIG. 1E shows an example of a table 1200 that includes a device profile data structure stored in the memory of an access point, such as the device profile data structure 1012 shown in FIG. The device profile data structure may perform connection and / or traffic parameter determination for associating with a communication device based on a device profile identifier field, such as the device profile identifier field 1090 shown in FIG. 1C. In some embodiments, a device profile may be defined for each device category and device type, and the values in the device category and device type fields are used as an index to search for device profiles for a particular communication device. May be.

  The device profile may include a common category parameter set and a device type specific parameter set. In this example, the device profile is accessed for a device category index, a device type index, a basic service set (BBS) maximum (max) idle period value for the device category, and a communication device. It may consist of an item in an access point (AP) proxy field that specifies the traffic type to which the point should respond. The device category index field and the device type index field have values indicating device categories and device types, such as the categories and types shown in FIG. 1D. The BSS max idle period allows to indicate a period during which the access point does not disassociate the communication device due to no reception of frames from the communication device. For example, the BSS max idle period is set to a large value for a fixed battery-powered device, which allows these devices to enter sleep mode for a longer period, and the BSS max idle period is Set to a small value for a device so that the network can continue to be updated, such as when the device roams between areas associated with different access points.

  The AP proxy column describes an event in which the access point functions as a proxy for the associated communication device, such as network maintenance traffic. This example includes an access point proxy field that defines the traffic type that the access point should respond to for stations for device types in the device category. The AP proxy may include one or more bits for proxy address resolution protocol traffic, bits for keep-alive traffic, and other network maintenance traffic. The proxy address resolution protocol traffic column may include traffic that a router node or access point receives traffic for the communication device and forwards the traffic to the communication device at a later time. Proxy address resolution protocol traffic may be set to logic 1 to indicate that the access point should respond for the communication device for address resolution protocol traffic.

  The keep-alive traffic column has traffic from other devices that request a response from the communication device to verify that the link between the communication device and the other device is good or should be maintained. If the keep alive bit is set to logic 1, the access point may respond to keep alive traffic for the communication device.

  The other traffic columns may include, for example, SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) traffic for managing devices on the Internet protocol network. SNMP traffic may be utilized in a network management system to monitor devices attached to the network for conditions that require administrative attention so that the access point responds to the traffic for the communication device.

  According to some embodiments, the device profile may also define a traffic pattern column, which allows the access point to perform some processing for the communication device, ie, a traffic filter service (TFS) column. Setting of traffic classification (TCLAS) and traffic specification (TSPEC) parameters, setting of TCLAS and TSPEC parameters for flexible multicast service (FMS) column, and / or setting of TCLAS TSPEC parameters for directed multicast service (DMS) column Configuration can be performed. TCLAS parameters have information that includes the parameter set needed to identify the input MSDUs, along with the specific traffic stream to which they belong. The TSPEC parameters have a parameter set that defines the QoS prediction and characteristics of the traffic flow.

  TFS is a service that does not transmit all input frames to a communication apparatus associated with an access point, but transmits only frames corresponding to a predetermined condition. Sending only frames that satisfy a certain condition instead of all frames to the communication device prevents unnecessary traffic from occurring, thereby improving the efficiency of using radio resources and reducing power consumption. To do.

  FMS is a service in which a communication device requests an individual service for multicast traffic. The FMS identifies a multicast stream set and enables adjustment of a delivery interval and a data rate to be used as a plurality of DTIM (Delivery Traffic Indication Message).

  DMS is a multicast-to-unicast conversion service. This feature delivers a multicast stream selected or identified as unicast traffic by the access point to the communication device. The advantages include increased reliability and reduced communication time because unicast is accepted and automatically retransmitted.

  In some embodiments, other TCLAS / TSPEC traffic may include, for example, any QoS related TCLAS / TSPEC traffic and the like. In a further embodiment, if the communication device decides to adjust the device profile settings, the communication device uses the TFS, FMS, DMS request and response frames to set a customized parameter set on the access point. Also good.

  Each row of the device profile table 1200 may have a device profile. A device profile may have default values for a particular category of devices of a particular device type. In other embodiments, the device profile table may have more parameters, fewer parameters, different parameters, or combinations thereof. In some embodiments, the device profile is not limited to a particular type of parameter.

  FIG. 2 shows an embodiment of an apparatus for generating, transmitting, receiving and interpreting a device profile index element of a frame. The apparatus includes a transceiver 200 connected to a MAC sublayer logic 201 and a physical layer (PHY) logic 250. The MAC sublayer logic 201 encapsulates a MAC service data unit (MSDU) for generating a MAC protocol data unit (MPDU) to be transmitted to the PHY logic 250, and the PHY logic 250 transmits one or more to be transmitted via the transceiver 200. PPDU may be generated by MPDU.

  In many embodiments, the MAC sublayer logic 201 includes a frame builder 202 that generates a frame that is passed to the PHY logic 250 as an MPDU having a device profile index element. The device profile index element has data indicating a specific device profile maintained by an access point such as the communication device 1010 of FIG. For example, the frame builder 202 may generate a frame including a type field that specifies that the frame is a management frame, and a subtype field that specifies the function of the frame. The management frame may include, for example, a beacon, a probe request, a probe response, an association request, an association response, a reassociation request, and a reassociation response frame subtype. The duration field following the first frame control field specifies the transmission period. The duration field may include a network allocation vector (NAV) that can be used as a protection mechanism for communication. The address field follows the duration field and specifies the address of the intended receiver for the transmission. The device profile index element indicates a device profile such as a sensor that is an appliance monitor.

  The PHY logic 250 includes a data unit builder 203. The data unit builder 203 determines the preamble for encapsulating the MPDU to generate the PPDU. In many embodiments, the data unit builder 203 generates a preamble based on communication parameters selected through interaction with the destination communication device.

  The transceiver 200 includes a receiver 204 and a transmitter 206. The transmitter 206 may include one or more of an encoder 208, modulation means 210, OFDM 212 and digital video former (DBF) 214. The encoder 208 of the transmitter 206 receives and encodes data for transmission from the MAC sublayer logic 202 along with binary convolutional coding (BCC), low density parity check coding (LDPC), and the like. The modulation means 210 receives data from the encoder 208 and, for example, converts the received data block into a corresponding set of sinusoidal discrete amplitudes, a set of discrete phase of sinusoids or a discrete frequency shift relative to the frequency of the sinusoids. The received data block may be applied to a sinusoid of a selected frequency, such as by mapping to a set. The output of the modulation means 210 is provided to an orthogonal frequency division multiplexer (OFDM) 212, which applies the modulated data from the modulation means 210 to a plurality of orthogonal subcarriers. In some embodiments, the output of modulation means 210 is provided to OFDM via STBC (Space-Time Block Coding). Also, the output of OFDM 212 forms a plurality of spatial channels, and in order to maximize the signal power transmitted to and received from each of the plurality of user terminals, in order to operate each spatial channel independently, a digital beamformer (DBF) ) 214.

  The transceiver 200 also has a diplexer 216 connected to the antenna array 218. In this embodiment, a single antenna array is used for both transmission and reception. During transmission, the signal passes through the diplexer 216 and drives the antenna with the up-converted information carrier signal. During transmission, the diplexer 216 prevents a signal to be transmitted from entering the receiver 204. During reception, the information carrier signal received by the antenna array passes through the diplexer 216 to transmit a signal from the antenna array to the receiver 204. Thereafter, diplexer 216 prevents received signals from entering transmitter 206. Accordingly, the diplexer 216 operates as a switch for alternately connecting the antenna array element to the receiver 204 and the transmitter 206.

  The antenna array 218 radiates the information carrier signal into a time-variable spatial distribution of electromagnetic energy that can be received by the receiver antenna. Thereafter, the receiver can extract the information of the received signal.

  The transceiver 200 has a receiver 204 for receiving, demodulating and decoding information carrier signals. The receiver 204 includes one or more of DBF 220, OFDM 222, demodulation means 224, and decoder 226. The received signal is provided from the antenna element 218 to the DBF 220. The DBF 220 converts the N antenna signals into L information signals. The output of DBF 220 is provided to OFDM 222. OFDM 222 extracts signal information from a plurality of subcarriers in which the information carrier signal is modulated. The demodulator 224 demodulates the received signal, extracts information content from the received signal, and generates a non-demodulated information signal. In addition, the decoder 226 decodes the reception data from the demodulation unit 224 and transmits the MPDU that is the decoded information to the MAC sublayer logic 201.

  Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the transceiver has a number of additional features not shown in FIG. 2 and that the receiver 204 and transmitter 206 can be separate devices rather than packaged as a single transceiver. You will recognize that. For example, a transceiver embodiment may include a DRAM, a reference oscillator, a filtering circuit, a synchronization circuit, a plurality of possible frequency conversion stages, a plurality of amplification stages, and the like. Furthermore, some of the functions shown in FIG. 2 may be integrated. For example, digital beamforming may be integrated with orthogonal frequency division multiplexing.

  For embodiments in which the MAC sublayer logic 201 is part of an access point, the MAC sublayer logic 201 parses the MPDU to determine a device profile index element, such as the device profile index element 1080 shown in FIG. 1B. Thereafter, the MAC sublayer logic 201 may determine a device profile from a device profile data structure such as the device profile table 1200 shown in FIG. 1E using the specified device category and device type. Based on the device profile, the access point may set parameters associated with the corresponding communication device to determine subsequent interactions with the corresponding communication device.

  FIG. 3 shows an example of a flowchart 300 for generating a frame having a device profile index element. The flowchart 300 begins with the MAC sublayer logic determining the MAC header of the association or reassociation frame (element 305). For example, the MAC sublayer logic may determine a header having a frame control indicating an association or reassociation request subtype frame with a management type frame.

  The MAC sublayer logic determines the element identifier field of the element of the frame body of the association or reassociation request frame (element 310). The element identifier field provides data for identifying an element whose subsequent field matches the device profile index element. The MAC sublayer logic determines a frame body element length field (element 315), a frame body device category field (element 320), and a frame body device type field (element 325). In many embodiments, determining an element identifier field, a length field, and a device profile identifier field (including a device category field and a device type field) extracts these fields from the storage medium for inclusion in the frame. including. In another embodiment, the value included in the field may be stored in a storage medium such as a ROM, a RAM, a cache, a buffer, and a register. In further embodiments, one or more of the element identifier field, length field, and device profile identifier field may be hard-coded into the MAC sublayer logic or may be available for insertion into the frame. In still other embodiments, the MAC sublayer logic may generate device profile index elements based on access to the value indication for each.

  In some embodiments, the MAC sublayer logic determines other elements of the frame body (element 330). For example, some elements may be inserted before the device profile index element, and some elements may be inserted after the device profile index element. Other elements may include, for example, supported rates, extended supported rates, power capabilities, supported channels, QoS capabilities, vendor specific parameters, and the like. For reassociation request frames, the frame body may also include the address of the current access point.

  After determining the frame body, the MAC sublayer logic determines a frame check sequence (FCS) field value to provide error correction at the access point (element 335).

  4A-B show an example of flowcharts 400, 450 for transmitting, receiving, and interpreting communications with device profile index elements as shown in FIG. Referring to FIG. 4A, a flowchart 400 begins with receiving a frame having a device profile index element indicating a device category and device type associated with a communication device from a frame builder. The MAC sublayer logic of the communication device generates the frame as a management frame for transmission to the access point, and passes it to the data unit builder that converts the data into a packet that can be transmitted to the access point as an MPDU. The data unit builder may generate a preamble to encapsulate the PSDU (MPDU from the frame builder) to form a PPDU for transmission (element 405). In some embodiments, multiple MPDUs may be encapsulated in a PPDU.

  The PPDU is transmitted to a physical layer device, such as the transmitter 206 of FIG. 2 or the transceivers 1020, 1040 of FIG. 1, and the PPDU is converted into a communication signal (element 410). Thereafter, the transmitter transmits a communication signal via the antenna (element 415).

  Referring to FIG. 4B, flowchart 450 begins with a receiver of an access point, such as receiver 204 of FIG. 2, receiving communication signals via one or more antennas, such as antenna elements of antenna array 218 ( Element 455). The receiver converts the communication signal into an MPDU according to the process described in the preamble (element 460). More specifically, the received signal is provided from one or more antennas to a DBF such as DBF 220. The DBF converts the antenna signal into an information signal. The output of DBF is provided to OFDM, such as OFDM222. OFDM extracts signal information from a plurality of subcarriers on which information carrier signals are modulated. Thereafter, the demodulating means such as the demodulating means 224 demodulates the signal information via BPSK, 16-QAM, 64-QAM, 256-QAM, QPSK, or SQPSK. Also, a decoder such as decoder 226 decodes signal information from the demodulation means via BCC or LDPC to extract MPDU (element 460), and transmits the MPDU to MAC sublayer logic such as MAC sublayer logic 202 (element 465).

  The MAC sublayer logic determines a device profile identifier, such as device profile identifier 1090 of FIG. 1C, from the MPDU (element 470). For example, the MAC sublayer logic parses the frame to determine the frame body and parses or decodes the frame body to determine the device profile index element. Thereafter, the MAC sublayer logic analyzes or decodes the device profile index element based on the frame structure of the device profile index element stored in the memory, and determines data indicating a device category and a device type such as a device profile identifier.

  The MAC sublayer logic then determines a device profile to associate with the communication device that is the source of the communication signal and the device profile identifier based on the device profile identifier (element 475). For example, the MAC sublayer logic parses or decodes the device profile identifier based on the structure of the device profile identifier in the memory of the access point, and determines the device category and device type associated with the communication device that is the source of the communication signal. May be. The MAC sublayer logic uses the device profile identifier to identify the device profile in the device profile data structure accessible by the access point, for example, because the device profile data structure is in the memory of the access point. Utilizing a device profile identifier to identify a device profile refers to searching or identifying a record in a device profile data structure that has a device profile by utilizing the device category and device type as an index to the device profile data structure. It may be accompanied.

  Another embodiment is implemented as a program for implementing the system and method described with reference to FIGS. Some embodiments may take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment or an embodiment containing both hardware and software elements. Other embodiments are implemented by software including but not limited to firmware, resident software, microcode, etc.

  Further, embodiments may be used for a computer program (or machine accessible product) accessible from a computer-usable or readable medium that provides program code that is utilized or connected by a computer or any instruction execution system. Can take form. For purposes of this description, a computer-usable or computerized medium may be any device that can contain, store, communicate, propagate, or transmit a program for use or connected by an instruction execution system, device, or device. Can do.

  The medium can be an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system (or apparatus or device). Specific examples of computer readable media include semiconductor or solid state memory, magnetic tape, removable computer diskette, RAM, ROM, rigid magnetic disk and optical disk. Current examples of optical disks include CD-ROM, CD-R / W and DVD.

  A data processing system suitable for storing and / or executing program code will include at least one processor coupled directly or indirectly to memory elements through a system bus. The memory element reduces the number of times code needs to be extracted from the bulk storage during execution, so that the bulk storage and cache memory that provides temporary storage of at least some program code, and the actual program code And local memory used during execution.

  The logic described above may be part of an integrated circuit chip design. The chip design is created in a graphical computer programming language and stored on a computer storage medium (disk, tape, physical hard drive or virtual hard drive in a storage access network). If the designer does not manufacture a chip or photolithographic mask that is used to manufacture the chip, the designer can use physical means (such as by providing a copy of a storage medium that stores the design) or electronically (internet). Etc.), and the design created is transmitted directly or indirectly to the entity. The stored design is then converted to a format suitable for manufacturing (such as GDSII).

  The manufactured integrated circuit chips can be distributed by the manufacturer in an unprocessed wafer form as a bare die (ie, as a single wafer with multiple unpackaged chips) or in packaged form. In the latter case, the chip is either a single chip package (such as a plastic carrier with leads attached to a motherboard or other upper level carrier) or a multi-chip package (one of the surface interconnections or embedded interconnections or It is mounted on a ceramic carrier having both. In either case, the chip is then integrated with other chips, other circuit elements and other signal processing devices as part of (a) an intermediate product such as a motherboard or (b) an end product.

  It will be apparent to those skilled in the art having the benefit of this disclosure that this disclosure contemplates device profile index elements for communicating device profiles to other communication devices. It will be understood that the form of embodiments shown and described in the detailed description and drawings are to be taken merely as examples. It is intended that the following claims be construed broadly to include all variations of the disclosed embodiments.

Claims (20)

A method of communicating via a device profile index element,
Generating a frame having said device profile index element having data indicating a device category and a device type for associating a communication device with a device profile; and a medium access control (MAC) sublayer logic;
The physical layer logic encapsulating the frame with a preamble to generate a physical layer protocol data unit to be transmitted;
I have a,
The method of generating the frame includes generating the frame with the device profile index element having an element identifier field, a length field, and a device profile identifier .   The method of claim 1, further comprising: an antenna transmitting a frame encapsulated by the preamble.   The method of claim 1, wherein generating the frame comprises generating the frame having the device profile index element in a frame body of the frame of an association request. Generating the frame having the device profile index element generates the frame having the device profile identifier having a device category field for indicating the device category and a device type field for indicating the device type; comprising the steps of method of claim 1, wherein. Generating the frame with the device profile index element includes generating the frame with the device profile identifier having a device category field that is 8 bytes long and a device type field that is 8 bytes long. The method of claim 4 . A device that communicates via a device profile index element,
Memory,
A MAC (Medium Access Control) sub-layer logic connected to the memory for generating a frame having the device profile index element having data indicating a device category and a device type for associating a communication apparatus with a device profile;
I have a,
The MAC sub-layer logic includes logic for generating the frame having the device profile index element having an element identifier field, a length field, and a device profile identifier . The apparatus of claim 6 , further comprising: a transmitter connected to the MAC sublayer logic and transmitting the frame; and an antenna connected to the transmitter and transmitting the frame. The apparatus of claim 6 , wherein the MAC sublayer logic includes logic to generate the frame having the device profile index element in a frame body of the frame of an association request. The MAC sublayer logic includes a device category field for indicating the device category, the includes logic to generate the frame with the device profile identifier and a device type field to indicate the device type, according to claim 6, wherein apparatus. The apparatus of claim 6 , wherein the MAC sublayer logic includes logic to generate the frame having a device profile identifier having a device category field that is 8 bytes long and a device type field that is 8 bytes long. A system for communicating via a device profile index element,
MAC (Medium Access Control) sub-layer logic for generating a frame having the device profile index element having data indicating a device category and a device type for associating a communication device with a device profile;
Physical layer logic that encapsulates the frame with a preamble for generating a physical layer protocol data unit to be transmitted;
A transmitter connected to a data unit builder and having an antenna array for transmitting the frame from the data unit builder;
I have a,
The MAC sublayer logic includes logic for generating the frame having the device profile index element having an element identifier field, a length field, and a device profile identifier . The system of claim 11 , further comprising a memory connected to the MAC sublayer logic and for generating the frame. The system of claim 11 , wherein the MAC sublayer logic includes logic to generate the frame having the device profile index element in a frame body of the frame of an association request. The MAC sublayer logic includes a device category field for indicating the device category, the includes logic to generate the frame with the device profile identifier and a device type field to indicate the device type, according to claim 11, wherein system. A method of communicating via a device profile index element,
A MAC (Medium Access Control) sub-layer logic is a device profile index element having data indicating a device category and a device type for associating a communication apparatus with a device profile, and includes an element identifier field, a length field, and a device profile identifier. Receiving a frame having the device profile index element comprising :
The MAC sublayer logic decoding the frame to determine the device category and the device type;
Having a method. The method of claim 15 , further comprising determining a device profile based on a device identifier from memory. The method of claim 15 , wherein decoding the frame comprises decoding the frame to determine a device identifier and decoding the device identifier to determine the device category and the device type. A device that communicates via a device profile index element,
Memory,
A device profile index element connected to the memory and having data indicating a device category and a device type for associating a communication apparatus with a device profile, the device profile having an element identifier field, a length field, and a device profile identifier MAC (Medium Access Control) sub-layer logic that receives a frame having an index element and decodes the frame to determine the device category and the device type;
Having a device. The apparatus of claim 18 , further comprising a receiver and an antenna connected to the MAC sublayer logic for receiving the frame. The apparatus of claim 18 , wherein the MAC sublayer logic comprises logic that identifies the device profile in a device profile data structure in the memory based on the device category and the device type.

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